The evolution of Christmas wrapping

It is not as though my children expected Christmas presents to be wrapped in designer paper with matching bows and things that dangled.

After all, I had embarrassed them for years, sending them out to birthday parties with presents wrapped in newspapers.

In my defense, I would say, “It’s in color. It’s the funnies.” And wonder if they had inherited their left-brain father’s sense of humor.

Things didn’t get much better as they grew older.

I tried. Truly.

At the beginning of the Christmas season, I bought tissue paper in different colors, metallic paper, paper with reindeer, snowmen, angels and stars.

I set up a card table that became “Operation Wrap” and covered it with everything from paper to gift boxes to ribbons to that miracle of miracles, Scotch tape, which Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corporation had introduced to the world.

I am not sure today’s generation understands the importance of that little roll of gluey stuff.

They might well ask, before ScotchtTape came on the scene, what did we use for “stickum”?

For one thing, we had string; balls of string in red, green, blue, silver and gold.

String wasn’t the prettiest of ties, but it held paper in place and we learned to yell until someone in the house would come to our rescue when we needed an extra hand.

“Come put your finger right here,” we’d say, so the knot wouldn’t slip while we finished tying the bow.

And yes, we were guilty of offering up that old saw about, “It’s not the outside, but what’s inside that counts.”

Trying to figure out how much paper to cut for a package was a challenge. Still is. Measure twice, cut once.

I always seem to end up with more paper on one end than the other.

For years, we used stickers to hold down the ends of wrapping paper. Just deciding whether to use one with a picture of Santa Claus or a candle or a poinsettia was difficult.

These stickers not only had to be carefully extracted from a large sheet of paper, but they had to be dampened before the glue activated.

Sometimes, we kept a wet washcloth on the table and swiped the stickers with it.

Most times, we just stuck out our tongue and it was an instant wipe.

They never did get around to putting any flavor on that glue, except nasty.

Square packages and things like books and gift boxes were the least of my wrapping worries.

How do you wrap a basketball?

The children grew older and started wrapping their own packages. They learned how much metallic paper and tissue paper and paper with pictures of reindeer, snowmen, etc., cost.

They never admitted, not to this day, that using newspaper for wrapping presents was a neat, innovative and economical thing to do, not even covered with a dozen Santa Claus stickers.

They did learn to applaud pretty wrapping.

When it comes time to open presents, we sit around and admire the package.

“Whose wrap is this?” we cry and then clap our hands in appreciation.

They also learned to unwrap carefully. Expensive paper and ribbons and things that jingle and jangle can be used more than one year.

Then, someone came up with the idea — the absolutely brilliant idea — of using paper bags, all sorts of bags with pictures of Santa Claus and reindeer and snowmen and angels.

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